Volume 17 No. 1

*4th edn, xxxviii + 441 pp, paperback (plastic cover) with illustrations, ISBN13: 978-007013628-1, Sydney, McGraw Hill, RRP: AUD150, 2007 (Reprinted 2008). In 2006-2007, the Australian Government estimated that there were 25,564 general practitioners (GPs) in the country.1 There were would be few GPs who did not have a textbook by John Murtagh in their practice… Read more »

Fred Skeeles Victoria Park: Hesperian Press; 2008 (ISBN 978-0-85905-419-5: 151 pages) In September 2000, I reviewed ‘Proud Echo’ by Ronald McKie for Australian Military Medicine1. ‘Proud Echo’ narrated the history of the Battle of Sunda Straits, and of the events that followed, from the accounts of individual sailors. On the night of 28 February –… Read more »

Sandy” Ferguson graduated in Medicine at Melbourne University in 1942 and following his residency at The Alfred Hospital was commissioned as a Surgeon Lieutenant in the Royal Australian Naval Reserve in 1943. Prior to studying medicine he had tried to commence a naval career and having been accepted to join the Naval College at the… Read more »

Dr Bruce James Cheffins died at the Fremantle Hospital on 14 March 2008, as the result of a vehicle accident. He left behind his wife Andrae, sons Peter and Richard, daughters Bridget and Susie, and four grandchildren. His RAN service was noteworthy for his compassion and leadership aboard HMAS Perth (DDG 38, Captain P.H. Doyle… Read more »

Reprinted with the kind permission of the editors of the Seapower Centre – Australia The disaster which befell the Russian submarine Kursk in August 2000 caught the world’s attention and became a galvanising event in drawing renewed focus on submarine safety in the new century. Public empathy worldwide seemed to be driven by the belief… Read more »

Australian Defence Force Garrison Health Support operate in a complex relationship between a geography-based National Support Area (NSA) health care model, in which most of the medical resources and staff are owned by the single services; deployable capabilities, also owned by the Single services; and a National health care system that provides primary, secondary and… Read more »

Abstract Background The First World War saw the evolution and development of three great surgical specialties: orthopaedic surgery, thoracic surgery and plastic/maxillofacial surgery. This last specialty came of age during the carnage of some of the bloodiest battles in history and required a close relationship between plastic surgeon and dentist in the management of facial… Read more »

A molecular diagnostic laboratory was deployed overseas in response to a suspected emerging infectious disease in Sri Lanka in early 2008. The equipment and procedures used are established technology, well within the capability of a large hospital laboratory. However, the main obstacles to operating these systems in a resource-limited, tropical environment are better understood with… Read more »

Dear Sir I read with great interest a most commendable paper by LTCOL Kerry Clifford on Defence Health Service or Health Advice Agency: “An alternative reality to the Stevens Review” in Vol 16 Number 3 What is refreshing is that the alternatives brought up were in fact debated by the Committee in South Australia that… Read more »